Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Ukraine
Russia is shifting its war in Ukraine to taking a large area in the East known as the Donbas, with large missile attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities, and complete disregard for civilians who are trying to evacuate.
Not since WW2 will Europe witness such a clash of armies as is expected in the coming weeks.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO will now send heavy weapons to Ukraine “What we see is Russian regrouping and repositioning. We expect a big battle in Donbas. We are prepared for the long haul. This war may last for weeks, but also months, and possibly also for years. And therefore we need to prepare for a lot more.”
This morning, Ukrainian officials say an Iskander ballistic missile was fired by Russia into Kramatorsk striking the train station where many families, including elderly citizens who were waiting to board a train bound for Western Ukraine and safety.
The pictures are horrific showing dozens are dead, including many elderly women lying in pools of blood, surrounded by their few possessions scattered on the ground around them.
Russia denies firing the missile and blames Ukraine.
Putin’s war without conscience is expanding rapidly, although attempts to take cities in Ukraine have largely failed. His army is fractured and worn by a lack of skilled soldiers, and conscripts who lack the will to fight.
A U.S. defense official said Russia had completed pulling out all of its estimated 24,000 or more troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas in the north, sending them into Belarus or Russia to resupply and reorganize, probably to return to fight in the east.
So as in Syria and Chechnya, Putins army has increasingly resorted to air strikes and missile attacks on civilian areas.
In Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that of the more than 5,000 civilians killed during weeks of Russian bombardment and street fighting, 210 were children. Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death, he said.
Wait just a moment and try to digest that. 5000 dead in one city is a shocking number and a great tragedy for Ukraine and this is Europe in 2022. Putin’s legacy is a cruel and abhorrent war on a neighbouring country of 44 million.
U.S. President Bill Clinton has just written a piece on NATO expansion during his term in office, and why it occurred. Clinton quotes European leaders, who As Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and foreign minister, noted “It wasn’t NATO seeking to go East, it was former Soviet satellites and republics wishing to go West.”
Or as Havel said in 2008: “Europe is no longer, and must never again be, divided over the heads of its people and against their will into any spheres of interest or influence.” To reject Central and Eastern European countries’ membership into NATO simply because of Russian objections would have been doing just that.
And Clinton quotes others who say if NATO hadn’t expanded, right now the fight with Putin and his mad Imperialistic dreams would be taking place in East Germany instead of Ukraine.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/bill-clinton-nato-expansion-ukraine/629499/
Congress voted overwhelmingly Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil. The House action came after the Senate approved the two bills with 100-0 votes. The measures now go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
The European Union has formally approved a new set of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on coal imports, as well as sanctions against high-profile Russians. The issue of Russian energy imports is unresolved in Europe which relies so heavily on Russian gas and oil.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has gone to Ukraine, the most senior Western leader to go to Kyiv since Russia invaded on 24 February.
She is due to have talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv along with Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
Russia has admitted suffering "significant losses of troops" in Ukraine, as the invasion enters its 44th day.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told British channel Sky News the casualties were "a huge tragedy for us".
But that “tragedy” pales in comparison to the suffering in Ukraine. The Kremlin won’t admit to the Russian people the scope and depth of the conflict, nor the lives lost in Putin’s war on his neighbour Ukraine.
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Dana